Chimera Industries Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure

Anthony

Average Stuffer
Dec 5, 2015
79
36
I used a 280mmx25mm rad in bottom of my Cerberus with 25mm fans, fit great other than my motherboard SATA connector pushed into the fan housing lightly.


Some updates:

We should have colors for preview on forums here next week, pre-order up not long after that.

Slot covers on production units will be black powder coated to match chassis.

Ball studs will be staying 6 per side panel.

More to come!


Thanks for the info! I was worried about my part selection for a moment there. Are custom colors available to pre-order or just the standard colors?
 

KSliger

King of Cable Management
Sliger Designs
May 8, 2015
855
3,186
Oh! What prompted that?

Got a better price from ball stud / clip manufacturer, came out to about same cost to do 4 at old price as 6 at new. Plus should alleviate any panel gap concerns as @3lfk1ng guessed correctly.

Thanks for the info! I was worried about my part selection for a moment there. Are custom colors available to pre-order or just the standard colors?

For 17th goal we're sticking to the 5 colors + bare metal, hitting Black Friday shoppers is a must.

(I personally want to do sets of grained aluminum, stainless steel, gloss white, and a rustic steampunk set before Christmas. Only issue with these is the studs show on outside, but have an idea for a work around.)
 

Anthony

Average Stuffer
Dec 5, 2015
79
36
Got a better price from ball stud / clip manufacturer, came out to about same cost to do 4 at old price as 6 at new. Plus should alleviate any panel gap concerns as @3lfk1ng guessed correctly.



For 17th goal we're sticking to the 5 colors + bare metal, hitting Black Friday shoppers is a must.

(I personally want to do sets of grained aluminum, stainless steel, gloss white, and a rustic steampunk set before Christmas. Only issue with these is the studs show on outside, but have an idea for a work around.)

Alright, that's sounds like a good plan. I'll wait for the new photos to drop and make an informed decision then. I myself may go with the bare metal depending how it looks as I'm wanting a clean industrial vibe with color accents. Are we getting photos of that one as well?
 
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Taswegian

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 1, 2017
89
76
Anyone have any color choices in mind yet? @Phuncz says red, which after seeing @MarcParis 's build log looks to be gorgeous.

I'm pretty sold on red + slate top.

I'm going Slate panels and Black roof with handle kit.

Are you getting two panel sets or painting the black top yourself? Pretty sure you can't spec color per panel (Marc's was a mistake)

Leaning towards the front sfx psu option but may go with the rear mount. I have an H100v2 that I would like to keep using if possible.

Pipes off the waterblock going straight up plus not very flexible so likely problems with clearance if PSU rear mounted. Now there will be an option for rear SFX too so +22.5mm extra clearance over the CPU (for a total of about 70mm IIRC) maybe that's enough.

The more conventional approach would be front mount SFX & rad on the bottom.
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
3,663
2,771
Pipes off the waterblock going straight up plus not very flexible so likely problems with clearance if PSU rear mounted. Now there will be an option for rear SFX too so +22.5mm extra clearance over the CPU (for a total of about 70mm IIRC) maybe that's enough.

The more conventional approach would be front mount SFX & rad on the bottom.
In theory you should have 70mm in cpu cooler clearance with sfx rear psu, however as silverstonetek bracket is not maximising offset, so i got finally only something like 62-63mm...my apogee drive (61.5mm without fittings) is either tight fit or blocked with fittings.
That’s why i asked @KSliger and @PlayfulPhoenix to develop a rear sfx bracket that will provide as close as possible of this 70mm theorical cpu cooler clearance...;)
 

Rubricae

Efficiency Noob
Jan 13, 2017
5
6
There's also the hinge bracket that will fill most of any full chassis window, may need to change the design slightly to make the hinge bracket optional. Will need community feedback and I'll talk to @PlayfulPhoenix.

So currently the swinging mount can't be removed? I just sort of assumed from the look of the hinge that it could be lifted and removed. Would be nice to have a simple method to remove it non-permanently.

(I personally want to do sets of grained aluminum, stainless steel, gloss white, and a rustic steampunk set before Christmas. Only issue with these is the studs show on outside, but have an idea for a work around.)

Would love some more details about the rustic steampunk set - ever since I saw the Chimera I wanted to do a electroplated & etched copper panel set with some verdigris for a themed build, and sounds like steampunk might be coppery? I can only hope ahahah...

If not I definitely see myself custom fabricating some copper plate panels in future. Might be a tad heavy though lol.
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
Actually, why hinge? vs something like a regular panel/frame that unmounts in one piece.
(Not sure why didn't I think to ask a few months back ._. )
 
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EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
2,107
Actually, why hinge? vs something like a regular panel/frame that unmounts in one piece.
(Not sure why didn't I think to ask a few months back ._. )
If anything is mounted to the side bracket (e.g. radiator) it makes maintenance a LOT easier to have the bracket remain attached while hinging out of the way. When I had a rad & HDD cage attached to the M1's bracket, it meant that if I wanted to access the motherboard I needed to either turn the case on it's side and lean the bracket & rad off of the side to avoid straining the tubing too much (as well as disconnecting the drives in the cage), or demount the cooler from the CPU. With the hinge, it can just be swung out of the way without any parts being strained.

The Cerberus hinge appears to be a non-fixed drop-in hinge, so once you remove the screw from the right side to allow it to swing you can just life the hinge off of its mounting points and remove it anyway.
 

Taswegian

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 1, 2017
89
76
I've been wondering about using the side bracket to brace a CPU air cooler. They can be quite some mass and hanging a good distance from the mobo which I guess could put a lot of strain on the mounting if roughly handled in transport.

Is it worth doing?
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
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Has to fit though.
 
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VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
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yeah earlier in this thread (a few months back though) I toyed with the thought of an internal brace to keep the finstack in place. An iteration was some kind of motherboard shield that's heightened to the underside of the bottom fan, so the stack is between the hinge panel and the motherboard brace.

to model it out is probably the easier part, considering that to pay a service to bend it out would be...
(and I don't have the luxury to buy and house a sheet metal brake and actual sheets of metal ,_,)

Kinda dropped that idea for now, because I need the physical thing to actually do a sanity check, LOL
(EDIT: also another sanity check about the kind of force required to actually bend the C14s to even consider reinforcing it in the first place)
 
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Taswegian

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 1, 2017
89
76
Bracing from below, hmm also seems like a good approach.
Thing is, I'm not even sure this is a problem that needs addressing. It seems plausible it might be, but I've no idea how often people have actual damage in this way. I don't worry about me carrying the thing around but even well padded inside a pelican case or similar makes me cringe at the thought of baggage handlers.

And the side brace seems like a good target of opportunity.
 
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